The rights of pigs

"My right is a liberty left me by
the law to do any thing which the
law forbids me not."
Thomas Hobbes
Dial. Comm. Laws 1670 (1681) 37
(OED 'right').

"We should not take our right on a thief,
to justify his theevery"
1586 Answer to Cartwright 55
(OED 'right').

I often wonder if pigs _do_ have a right to fly, as the Duchess denies (in the Alice books). ("You have as much right to think as pigs have to fly").

Well, for what it's worth, I have now consulted the OED for 'right' as _noun_, and retrieved a couple (of) (somewhat, some will say) more serious quotes. "Right" is, as I thought, a derivation of 'right' as _adjective_, and cognate with 'rectus', Latin for 'straight' and thus E. 'correct' (Root 'reg' -- to make straight). The uses of 'right' as noun are, I'm surprised, v. early indeed -- the first OED quote being -- and, mind, in our relevant usage only -- from Cynewulf 900 -- as per quotes below. For the record, the OED defines this 'relevant' use of 'right' -- as opposed as 'right' qua noun as in 'the right and wrong' -- as "a legal, equitable, or moral title or claim to the possession of property or authority, the enjoyment of
privileges or immunities; that which justly accrues or falls to any one;
what one may properly claim; one's due." I append the relevant cites below.

"right", noun. OED cites:
900 Cynewulf Elene 909 (Gr.),
"Nu cwom eltheodig, hafad mec bereafod right gehwylces."
900 in Thorpe Dipl. Angl. Sax. (1865) 140
"Tha sona was Ethelwald thaes wordes, thaet he no thes rights widsacan would."
1300 Cursor M. 3544
"Thou shalt never in thi forbirth do claim na right."
1375 Barbrour Bruce I. 78
"He should that arbytre disclar & let him ryng that had the right."
1491 Act 7 Hen. VII, c. 20 Sect.7
"All such right, title, interest, claim as they have in any of the
premisses."
1525 Ld Berners Froiss. II. lii[i]. 188
"Let the right go to the right."
1544 tr. Littleton's Tenures (1574) 96 b,
"The donee to whom the release was made then had nothing in the land, but
only a right."
1641 Termes de la Ley 129 b,
"For when the right, which is the foundation and the principal, is
released, by consequence the action is also released."
1681 Stair Instit. (1693) II. i. 161
"All rights are either that original community of all men or the interest
which possession gives, or property."
1689. Burnet. The Bill of Rights, a bill declaring the rights &
liberties of England, and the succession to the crown.
1706 Stanhope Paraphr. III. 334
"After all our boast of settlements and estates, nothing is or can be
settled, but the original right in the great universal Lord."
1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 1
"Strange! that one and twenty miles sailing should give a man these rights."
1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 172
"The husband is entitled to all those rights which his wife would have had
if she were alive, and which were annexed to her estate."
1853 Robertson Lect. (1858) 747
"Rights are grand things, but the way in which we expound those rights
seems to me to be the
very incarnation of selfishness."
1893 Traill Soc. Eng. Introd. p. xiii,
"Association, however, necessarily creates rights; from rights spring law
and government."
1816 Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Introd. View (1830) 17
"A civil, or say a right-conferring code."
1205 LAY. 26411
"Other land's money, The Julius hafde an honde, That he naued nane rihte to."
1297 R. GLOUC. (Rolls) 7495
"A fals king that nadde no right to the kingdom."
1300 Cursor M. 26511
"To cover the right til heaven bliss."
1400. Gaytryge in Hampole's Wks. (1896) I. 109
"Robes and rychesce that we haf na good titil ne na right to."
1567 Satir. Poems Reform. viii. 9
"War gour right reknit to the crown It might be laid with little menss."
1643 Ld Falkland, etc. Infallibility (1646) 99
"The Turks are sensible of the right the Christians have for the free
exercise of their religion."
1680 Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 71
"When he hath given it to us, we have a civil right to it."
1709 Mrs Manley Secret Mem. (1720) III. 28
"He is not permitted to fill those vacancies (to which by the Law of War,
he has an indisputed Right)."
1789 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xviii. Sect.25 note,
"On various occasions you have a right to the services of the magistrate."
1855 Brewster Newton II. xv. 40
"He asserted his own right to the discovery of the differential calculus."
1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 536
"St. Paul maintained against them his independent right to the highest
order of the Apostolate."
1916 G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion p. lxx,
"We must begin by holding the right to an income as sacred and equal, just
as we now begin by holding the right to life as sacred and equal."
1972 Times 22 Jan. 18/7
"English law does not yet recognize a right to privacy."
1973 A. E. Wilkerson Rights of Children 312
"It is doubtful that in the right-to-life controversy the rights of the
unborn child will be inviolate."
1973 Austral. Humanist XXVI. 1/1
"The victory of the Roman Catholic-dominated Right to Life Association over
the McKenzie-Lamb private members Bill to provide abortions on
request..will be seen by social historians of the future as pyrrhic."
1977 Time 25 July 2/3
"If the Government provided its citizens with alternative birth control
methods (free of charge), there would be fewer abortions. Even the
right-to-lifers would like that."
1400 Morte Arth. 1275
"Then shall we rekkene what right that he claims, thus to riot this rewme!"
1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 524
"Some good gentleman, that hath the right unto his Church for to present a
wight."
1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 194
"A palisadoe to hinder the fishing of those that have no right to fish."
1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. I. 409
"If not, the people have a right supreme to make their kings."
1711 Steele Spect. No. 145 P 4
"He has no right to act here as if he were in an empty room."
1784 J. Potter Virtuous Villagers II. 128
"Women claim a right to inspect into the indiscretions of their husbands."
1803 Sir J Mackintosh Wks. (1846) III. 242
"He has a right to expect from me a faithful, a zealous, and a fearless
defence."
1887 Rider Haggard Allan Quatermain xvi,
"We were officers, and in that capacity had a right to come and go
unquestioned."
1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 24 May P 7,
"I have no right to maintain idle vagrants."
1808 Eleanor Sleath Bristol Heiress I. 209,
"I don't see as how women have any right to be trampled on."
1829 J. Hunter Hallamsh. Gloss. s.v.,
"`I have no right to pay at that toll-bar,' means, I am not obliged to pay
there."
1854 Miss Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v.,
"`I have no right to pay': i.e. I ought not to be compelled to pay."
1892 M. C. F. Morris Yorks. Folk-talk 82
"`To have a right' is equivalent to `ought' or `in duty bound', in such a
phrase as
this: 'He' gotten a weyfe an' bairns, and he's a right to keep 'em.'"
1958 Economist 15 Nov. 599/2
"So far the only change that Mr Meany has committed himself to seek is one
to remove the provision which allows the states to adopt `right-to-work'
laws. These are laws forbidding employers and unions to enter into
contracts that require workers to join the union within a
specified period."
1967 Harper's Mag. Mar. 8
"You might have then seen the virtue of the right-to-work policy... What
would have been gained.. if you sanctioned a system by which this honest
and qualified ex-con were compelled to join a union against his will as the
price of holding his new-found job?"
1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 22 Mar. 6/1
"In 1967 the great bulk of federal civil servants were given the right to
strike."
1979 Tucson Mag. Mar. 31/3
"Both cities are situated in a right-to-work state."
1976 N.Y. Times 5 Sept. IV. 5/2
"The California legislature has passed..the nation's first `right-to-die'
bill... The bill will permit healthy persons to sign `living wills' which
would order their physicians..to
disconnect life-sustaining equipment if that equipment serves no other
purpose
than to delay the moment of death."
1978 Detroit Free Press 14 Apr. 4B/2
"Death ends right-to-die case before Ind. court can decide."
1986 N.Y. Times 24 Apr. A22/2
"What she has asked the California courts for this time is not the right to
die but the right to refuse medical treatment."
1463. Cal. Rec. Dubl. (1889) I. 315
"Apon the varyaunce of the ryght and tytle of the office of Recorder."
1559 Baldwin in Mirr. Mag. e ij,
"Earle Richard..had the right of Salysbury in holde."
1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. IV. xxxiii. 155 b,
"He would not permit these..to enioy the right of Burgesie."
1611 BIBLE Tobit vi. 11,
"I will speak for her, that she may be given thee for a wife. For to thee
doth the right of her appertaine."
1641 Termes de la Ley 129 b,
"Right of entrie."
1702 H. Dodwell Apol. Sect.15 in S. Parker Cicero's De Finibus,
"Authority..had undoubtedly the Right of Life and Death."
1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 178
"The alienee..hath not only a bare possession, but also an apparent right
of possession."
1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. lst. I. 81
"A certain part of the senators..possessed votes without the right of
addressing the assembly."
1889 Law Times Rep. LVIII. 163/2
"The right of using this road constituted an easement of the farm."
1129 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1129,
"Thaet hi scolden ealle cumen to Lundene.., & paer scolden sprecon of ealle
Godes rihtes."
1250 Gen. & Ex. 3714
"Burges stronge and folc vn-fri3t, stalwurdi to weren here ri3t."
1290 Beket 229 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 113
"Swype wel bi-gan pis Ercedekne holi churche bi-lede, And stifliche heold
op hire ri3te."
1300 Cursor M. 26320
"Thou thi right fordon has than."
1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 30
"They shall save the king his right, and non prejudys don a-geyn his lawe
in pes ordenaunce."
1425 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 273/1
"The pretensed ryght of my said Lord."
1483 Caxton G. de la Tour h vj,
"When the king was dead, some would have taken her right from her."
1558 Goodman How to Obey 180
"It is..a great discouraging to the people..when they are not defended..in
their right and title."
1590 Shaespeare Mids. N. I. i. 92
"Lysander, yeelde Thy crazed title to my certaine right."
1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 194,
"I yield up my right in all the good I receive from you."
1670 Hobbes Dial. Comm. Laws (1681) 37
"My right is a liberty left me by the law to do any thing which the law
forbids me not."
1757 W. WILKIE Epigoniad I. 14
"In vain for Polynices' right they bled."
1799 Han. More Fem. Educ. (ed. 4) I. 147
"To these have been opposed, with more presumption than prudence, the
rights of woman."
1819 Mackintosh Parl. Suffrage Wks. 1846 III. 232
"The enlightened friends of the rights of the people."
1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 222
"Human nature at last asserted its rights."
1878 Dale Lect. Preach. ix. 291
"Respect the rights of the past: assert the rights of the present."
897 K. Aelfred Gregory's Past. C. 397
"Agife se wer his wife her right on her gesinscithe."
970 in Thorpe Laws I. 258
"Do dam deofe his right, swa hit aer Eadmundes cwide was."
1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 179
"Unnedes hie winnen giet here louerdes rights"
1275 LAY. 7906
"Ich hou segge, cnihtes, Rome his oure rights"
1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 6755
"Ge waytes vs wyth some treasons, For to withholden us our right."
1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 328
"They been pevys and cursed, for thei withdrawn rights of holy Church."
1400 Destr. Troy 7987,
I shall our ground to the Greeks graunt as for right."
1535 Coverdale Jer. xxii. 16
"Ye when he helped ye oppressed and poor to their right, then prospered he
well."
1586 Answer to Cartwright 55
"We should not take our right on a thief, to justify his theevery"
1625 Fletcher Nice Valour V. iii,
"Honour and admiration are her rights."
1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 11
"Observing the Laws and paying the Rights of the Countrie."
1655 Moufett and Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 81
"Let us not but give the devil his right."
1782 Miss Burney Cecilia X. iii,
"He has been advised by his friends to claim his rights."
1832 Ht Martineau Life in Wilds iii. 41
"Our provisions are the right of those who work for them."
1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 35
"We cannot help acknowledging that what is right for us is the right of
others."
1810 SCOTT Lady of L. III. xviii,
"Grief claim'd his right, and tears their course."

Etc.